Okay, William decided not to go by train. We still have two planes and an auto. As we did last year, Japanimation, USA attended BayCon. For me, going to BayCon was a long list of traffic problems and a near-war with another club. But since I did eventually get there and the club incident was cleared up, I'll try to focus on the convention itself.

The convention was good. BayCon '88 was great, but '89 was good. Mamoru Nagano was a guest, which was definitely an improvement on last year. But the Japanese animation through the hotel viewing room was scarcely more up-to-date than last year (Macross Summer '84 was shown again). In fact, last year, they showed Project A-ko subtitled in English. This year, they showed the unsubtitled version and cut it off right before the missile-hopping scene! Mellowlink and a few semi-new releases were shown, but that's it.

The parties, compared to last year, were really dead, although the Dead Party was almost half alive. Of the members of J-USA that attended, the favourite event had to be the Fish Dance (which I missed last year because I was too busy). The music was enjoyed by all of us, and we enjoyed dancing to the Time Warp and Turnin' Japanese, among other songs. Some members claim the girl I danced with was too young for me, but don't listen to them.

When we made our reservations several months in advance, the hotel said they thought they could arrange to get us a room on the second floor (where the clubs and parties were, mostly), but they put us on the third floor. Instead of the two double beds we requested, we got one king-sized bed. And they were rude to us the first time we asked them why they messed up.

The Japanimation Program Guide was printed on 11" x 17" paper & stapled, the cover printed on the same thin paper as the inside. The guide was full of typos, and the ad we paid for was run in the general guide rather than the Japanimation Guide. Also, we sent BayCon some artwork which they seem to have not used at all.

The gophers (volunteers who get their membership money back by working a certain number of hours) got to sit in the elevators and help press buttons, in order to watch people and make sure the lights in the ceilings of the elevators didn't get punched out (it happened to one of the four elevators before the gophers were installed).

Our traditional trip to San Francisco was a great success, and especially fun for Kumiko, Jay's Japanese penpal who came along to the con. I found a rare comic at Books Kinokuniya (Slow Step) by my favourite artist (Adachi Mitsuru, who did Touch), and we found some cool buttons, jewelry, and clothing.

San Jose also had some great places to shop, like Yaohan and Nikaku, where I found two Hiatari Ryoko CDs, and Jim bought some Dirty Pair posters. Jay bought a poster of Ayukawa and some Orange Road stationary.

Well, the con could have been worse (we know, we've been to worse!), but it had a little trouble following the pace of '88. It was still a good con, and I already shelled out the $15 early to go next year. Maybe we could plan a few events in our room next time to liven up the atmosphere.

WOW!! a whole 15 bux for pre-registration. those were the days huh? and now you're having a party in your room *every* year just about. too bad fanime is the same weekend. **sigh** thanks for the trip down memory lane

Keep them fascinating tidbits coming!A couple of the (rather small) cons here have problems with people volunteering for free entry and then not doing the hours. I'd never actually considered making them pay upfront and then refunding it... I should mention this to a few people. ^^

YOU wrote "Japanimation" !!! As a kid we ALWAYS used that term to describe Japanese animation. After the short move from Santa Clara to San Jose, using that term got me dumbfounded looks and any response was either to the effect I must be on crack to think the term even or ever existed, or that I'd made up the term from thin air. Some people even corrected me "you mean animation" :p After all these years, I am finaly vindicated. Oi!

Yes indeed. The term was coined by Fred Patten, and I actually wrote to him asking permission to use it in the name for my old club, Japanimation USA. He had a stroke this year, and people are donating money and hoping he pulls through.

A search for "Japanimation USA" brings up a few unrelated hits, but there is one club list from 1994 that comes up and includes mine (though we disbanded before then) at my old address in Fullerton, with the street name misspelled. :)

I don't remember exactly when the term "anime" started getting used here instead, but I do remember AnimeCon 1991.

i think half of my stuff was found deep in the depths of my room at some point. also, im thinking of starting my own anime rpg community, not just bleach, but any anime characters. ill make it real easy to understand, because i hate the feeling of not understanding the rules, and i love roleplaying, but i need to know if you guys would participate. you can have multiple (max. 4, but 2-3 is recommmended) , and can rp either in writing, or artwork, PLEASE CONTACT ME!!! i think it would be fun!